Instead, he does everything he can to get the real deal… only to ultimately Rick things up in the process. Rick acknowledges just before he goes on the adventure into Birdperson’s mind that if he wanted to, he could simply hop timelines to find a version of his friend that suits him best. And not even necessarily just as a friend and partner in crime.
While Rick demanded “100 years” of Rick and Morty adventures when the series began, Birdperson is the one he actually wanted to fill that role. Morty is the one who won’t go away, simply because Rick won’t allow him to. Unlike Birdperson, Morty doesn’t have the power and agency to truly be done with Rick if needed.
In some ways, Morty is a Birdperson replacement to Rick, one who, even when he protests, still ultimately goes along with his grandfather’s plans. Morty is the one who will go on adventures with Rick - and can be forced to do so - at all times, while Birdperson pushed back on that after they fought the Galactic Federation in the Battle of Blood Ridge. And while Morty is off to the sidelines this episode - save for the cold open, he truly is spotless - presumably enjoying cruise life, the Rick/Birdperson strolls down memory lane also fill in a bit of the blanks when it comes to the Rick/Morty relationship. Present day Rick also describes Morty as their “hypothetical grandson” right before the Beth bombshell. As present day Rick attempts to call things “more complicated than that,” Memory Rick elaborates as to why it’s so creepy: “You live with a version of our dead daughter.”Įarlier in the episode, Memory Rick and Birdperson find themselves on a revenge mission against other Ricks who say that “killing us won’t bring her back.” In that moment, the natural assumption is that they’re talking about Beth’s mother, but the next context of Beth actually being dead changes all of that. “You’re one of those creeps who moves in with abandoned adult Beths,” Memory Rick notes. That’s because, as Memory Rick tells present day Rick, Beth is dead. While there’s a lot to unpack when it comes to Birdperson’s subconscious, in general, the big bombshell in this episode is that being a clone should actually be the least of Beth’s worries. Young, Memory Rick is ultimately not impressed with present day Rick. And in the process, he ends up teaming up with a younger version of himself. While the Smiths are off on a mild-mannered cruise adventure, Rick Sanchez instead takes an adventure of the mind. This episode even has a “Risky Business”-type premise set-up, with Beth’s dialogue having her play the role of the parent who’s going out of town at the beginning of a movie. Among them were Tom Kenny, Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, Alfred Molina, John Oliver, David Cross, Rich Fulcher, Claudia Black and Virginia Hey of Farscape fame, Jess Harnell, Phil Hendrie, Dana Carvey, and Aislinn Paul and Cassie Steele of Degrassi fame.An episode that teases a “Pickle Rick” redux, “Rick and Morty” is actually a bookend to the first season finale, “Ricksy Business,” the episode that introduced Birdperson (and Squanchy and Gearhead) and also kicked off the Birdperson/Tammy relationship. The first season featured many guest appearances. However, uncensored version of the episodes released on DVD are rated TV-MA. All episodes in the first season originally aired in the United States on Adult Swim, and are rated TV-14. Series co-creator Justin Roiland, John Rice, Jeff Myers, Bryan Newton and Stephen Sandoval served as directors, while Roiland, series co-creator Dan Harmon, Tom Kauffman, Ryan Ridley, Wade Randolph and Eric Acosta served as writers, while writer's assistant Mike McMahan was also given writing credit. The first season of the American animated television series, Rick and Morty originally aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, which premiered on Decemwith 'Pilot' and ended on Apwith 'Ricksy Business', with a total of eleven episodes.
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